Al-Tisʿīniyya - Ibn Taimiya - (3/923)

Al-TisʿīniyyaIbn Taimiya

found in the two Ṣaḥīḥs and other canonical collections, he regarded himself as having no need of it (1) for those. Consequently, to rely on his Sunan alone in this area breeds a profound ignorance of the very foundations of Islam. Observe, for example, the work of Abū (2) al-Maʿālī that he considered the distillation of his life’s effort—Nihāyat al-Maṭlab fī Dirāyat al-Madhhab (3). In that entire book there is not a single ḥadīth ascribed to Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī except one report concerning the basmala, and even that report is not actually in al-Bukhārī, as he claimed. Because he and those like him possessed only scant knowledge of the fundamentals of Islam, the Shāfiʿī scholars agreed that they do not constitute a recognised wajh (authoritative juristic position) within the madhhab. If his own associates deemed it impermissible to take their contrary opinions into account on even a single ancillary point of fiqh, what standing could they possibly have in anything beyond that? And if those same associates concurred that it is not lawful to adopt him (4) as an imām for a single subsidiary issue, how could he be taken as an imām in the fundamentals of the religion? It is evident that his stature among both elite and common folk rose only (5) because of his profound mastery of the Shāfiʿī madhhab—may Allah be pleased with its founder—for that school is built upon the Book and the Sunnah, and it is through this that he gained esteem among Muslims. At most, what one finds from him therein is a citation he has compiled or an investigation whose subtlety he has detected; this in no way (6) qualifies him to be counted an imām in the discipline, like those scholars whose independent wujūh carry weight. How then with respect to the speculative discourse about which al-Shāfiʿī and the rest of the imams (7) explicitly stated that it is not

(1) In the ṭ edition: “anha” (“from it”). (2) In all copies: “Aba.” The editor’s reading is likely correct. (3) See the discussion above on p. __. (4) “an yattakhidh” (“to adopt”): omitted in MS S. (5) The text between quotation marks is an addition in MSS S and T. (6) In the ṭ edition: “fala.” (7) In the original: “the Lawgiver and the entire community.” This reading is confirmed by MSS S and T and is perhaps the most appropriate. Ibn Abd al-Barr records in al-Intiqāʾ (p. 78), on the authority of Yūnus ibn Abd al-Aʿlā, that al-Shāfiʿī (may God have mercy on him) said to him: “And know—by God—that I have examined what the people of kalam (theologians) have written on the subject and found something I never imagined; indeed, for God to afflict a person with everything He has forbidden, except for shirk (associating partners with God), is better for him than to delve into kalam.”

المشهورة في الصحيحين وغيرهما فكان يستغني عنه (١) في ذلك، فلهذا كان مجرد الاكتفاء بكتابه في هذا الباب، يورث جهلًا عظيمًا بأصول الإسلام، واعتبر ذلك بأن كتاب أبي (٢) المعالي الذي هو نخبة عمره: "نهاية المطلب في دراية المذهب" (٣) ليس فيه حديث واحد معزو إلى صحيح البخاري، إلّا حديث واحد في البسملة، وليس ذلك الحديث في البخاري -كما ذكره- ولقلة علمه وعلم أمثاله بأصول الإسلام، اتفق أصحاب الشافعي على أنه ليس لهم وجه في مذهب الشافعي، فإذا لم يسوغ أصحابه أن يعتد بخلافهم في مسألة من فروع الفقه، كيف يكون حالهم في غير هذا؟! وإذا اتفق أصحابه على أنه لا يجوز أن يتخذ (٤) إمامًا في مسألة واحدة من مسائل الفروع، فكيف يتخذ إمامًا في أصول الدين؟! مع العلم بأنه [إنما] (٥) نبل قدره عند الخاصة والعامة، بتبحره في مذهب الشافعي - رضي الله عنه - لأن مذهب الشافعي مؤسس على الكتاب والسنة، وهذا الذي ارتفع به عند المسلمين، غايته فيه أن يوجد منه نقل جمعه أو بحث تفطن له لا (٦) يجعل إمامًا فيه، كالأئمة الذين لهم وجوه، فكيف بالكلام الذي نص الشافعي وسائر الأئمة (٧) على أنه ليس

(١) في ط: عنها. (٢) في جميع النسخ: أبا. ولعل ما أثبته الصواب. (٣) تقدم الكلام عليه ص:. (٤) أن يتخذ: ساقطة من: س. (٥) ما بين المعقوفتين زيادة من: س، ط. (٦) في ط: فلا. (٧) في الأصل: الشارع وسائر الأمة. والمثبت من: س، ط. ولعله المناسب. أخرج ابن عبد البر في "الانتقاء" ص: ٧٨: عن يونس بن عبد الأعلى أن الشافعي -رحمه الله- قال له: "واعلم -والله- أني اطلعت من أهل الكلام على شيء ما ظننته قط، ولأن يبتلي الله المرء بكل ما نهى الله عنه ما عدا الشرك به خير له من أن ينظر في الكلام".